LATEST figures show one in every ten people getting a coronavirus test receive a positive result – four times higher than the positivity rate just two weeks earlier.

Figures published by the UK government show that between August 28 and September 3, 168 tests were carried out per 100,000 people each day – the equivalent of 3,351 tests a week.

From those tests, 347 new cases of covid-19 were confirmed – a positivity rate of 10.4 per cent.

Across England, 11,809 cases were confirmed that week from 951,141 tests – a positivity rate of just 1.2 per cent.

Chris Green, MP for Bolton West, urged people to follow the rules to lower the spread.

He said: "We are seeing an increase in hospital admissions so we can be certain that there is an increase in covid in the area.

"People have to be responsible, I’m hearing that a very significant number of people aren’t following the rules – it’s very important to keep to the guidelines.

"The government also needs to win the confidence of people so they listen to the current message, if the vast majority of people follow the rules then they will be effective."

Testing had increased from the week before, when the testing rate was 105.2 – meaning 2,099 tests were done.

Between August 21 and August 27, 104 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed – a positivity rate of just under five per cent.

The week prior to that, August 14-20, 2,045 tests were taken, recording 54 new cases for a positivity rate of 2.6 per cent.

Daily data is published for the national testing effort, but lower level testing figures are only available for local authorities on the government's watch list, and are published weekly.

Mr Green has pushed for more information to be made available about testing in Bolton.

He said: "I would like the authorities to explain how confident they are about why these case figures are so high.

"You see a small outbreak or spike in an area and massively ramp up testing – there have been reports that these tests are so sensitive that they can pick up fragments of the dead virus in someone's system and give a false positive.

"We need more information about testing, we need to know why these figures are up."